Author Archives: brad

You know what I like about Dave? He’s decisive. Once he makes a decision, he sticks with and never second guesses.

Via Ramblings:

I don’t usually do lists like this, but this one seemed fairly interesting. You’re supposed to bold stuff that applies to you.

I have..

smoked a cigarette
smoked a cigar
smoked a joint
crashed someone’s car
stolen a car
been in love
been dumped
been fired
been in a fist fight
snuck out of my parent’s house
had feelings for someone who didn’t have them back
been arrested
made out with a stranger
gone on a blind date
lied to a friend
had a crush on a teacher
been to Europe
skipped school
seen someone die (if parakeets count)
been to Canada
been to Mexico
been on a plane
seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show
thrown up in a bar
purposely set a part of myself on fire
eaten Sushi
been snowboarding
met someone in person from the internet
been moshing at a concert
been in an abusive relationship (emotional or physical)
taken painkillers
love someone or miss someone right now
laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by
made a snow angel
had a tea party
flown a kite
built a sand castle
gone puddle jumping
played dress up
jumped into a pile of leaves
gone sledding
cheated while playing a game
been lonely
fallen asleep at work/school
used a fake ID
watched the sun set
felt an earthquake
touched a snake
slept beneath the stars
been tickled
been robbed
been misunderstood
pet a reindeer/goat
won a contest
run a red light
been suspended from school
been in a car accident
had braces
felt like an outcast
eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night
had deja vu
danced in the moonlight
hated the way you look
witnessed a crime
pole danced
been obsessed with post-it notes
squished barefoot through the mud
been lost
been to the opposite side of the country
swam in the ocean
felt like dying
cried yourself to sleep
played cops and robbers
recently colored with crayons/colored pencils/markers
sung karaoke
paid for a meal with only coins
done something you told yourself you wouldn’t
made prank phone calls when you were younger
laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
caught a snowflake on your tongue
danced in the rain
been kissed under the mistletoe
watched the sun rise with someone you care about
blown bubbles
made a bonfire on the beach
crashed a party
gone rollerskating
had a wish come true
humped a monkey
worn pearls
jumped off a bridge
screamed PENIS in public
ate dog/cat food
told a complete stranger you loved them
kissed a mirror
sang in the shower
have/had a little black dress
had a dream that you married someone
glued your hand to something
got your tongue stuck to a flag pole
kissed a fish
worn the opposite sex’s clothes
been a cheerleader
sat on a roof top
screamed at the top of your lungs
done a one-handed cartwheel
talked on the phone for more than 6 hours
stayed up all night
didn’t take a shower for a week.
picked and ate an apple right off the tree
climbed a tree
had a tree house
are scared to watch scary movies
believe in ghosts
have more than 30 pairs of shoes
worn a really ugly outfit to school just to see what others say
gone streaking
pushed into a pool/lake with all your clothes on
been told you’re beautiful/handsom by a complete stranger
broken a bone
been easily amused
caught a fish then ate it
caught a butterfly
laughed so hard you cried
cheated on a test
have a Britney Spears CD
forgotten someone’s name
French braided someone’s hair
fallen asleep with your bf / gf
fallen asleep with someone you weren’t going out with
cried so hard you laughed
mooned someone
had someone moon/flash you
slept naked

Reference

I came across a great quote today:

Two Texans were trying to impress each other with the size of their ranches. One asked the other, “What’s the name of your ranch?” The rancher replied, “The Rocking R, ABC, Flying W Circle C, Bar U, Staple Four, Box D, Rolling M, Rainbow’s End, and Silver Spur Ranch.” Duly impressed, the questioner exclaimed, “Wow! That’s sure some name! How many head of cattle do you run?” With a sad shake of his head, the rancher answered, “Not many. Very few survive the branding.” And so it is with pride. Very few survive this deadly disease.
– Mary Southerland

What Audio Format are You?

Just for Dave, a pictorial vignette…

Click on the image for more.

If you want to know what led to this, you’ll have to ask Dave.

by Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

---

Happy Father’s Day, everyone.

On Friday night, Jen and I accompanied Tom and Audra to a viewing of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Contains spoilers.

I’ve read some reviews about EP3 and its predecessors. Many of them refer to George Lucas ripping up their childhoods. Such phrases are, of course, complete drivel. What many geeks of my generation fail to realize is that Lucas’s target audience has always been boys around the age of 10. It just so happens that many of us were around that age when the “classic trilogy” of episodes IV, V, and VI was released. Lucas hasn’t changed much; we’ve all grown up. In the intervening years, many of have to come to idealize the original Star Wars trilogy and esteem as one of the great myths of our time.

Frankly, Star Wars is, indeed, one of the great myths of our time, along with such creations as The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. But the movies were still aimed at little kids. Kids who buy toys and cereal.

With that in mind, I hereby declare Revenge of the Sith to be a great movie. I do not feel that George Lucas has crapped on my childhood or any such nonsense. In fact, if I had to pick one thing about which to be angry at Lucas, it would be his newfound resolve against creating episodes VII, VIII, and IX. He says now that he never said there would be nine movies, which is utter nonsense. Everybody knows that were supposed to be nine. But I digress.

It was the best of the six Star Wars movies, in my opinion. Seeing Anakin Skywalker’s descent into madness, as Mike so aptly described it, was heartbreaking. Having seen the backstory on the big screen gives much more depth to the classic trilogy. Knowing why and how Anakin fell for what should have been seen as an obvious ploy makes the whole story that much more tragic, and his ultimate redemption all the more meaningful. The tale of Anakin’s fall is very cautionary; it warns us all how easy it is for good people to fall into darkness. His reasons were noble enough: he wanted to protect his wife. And after losing his mother, who could blame him? But, as does every tragic hero, he went too far. It wasn’t enough to protect her: he wanted to make her immortal. That was his undoing. It was his refusal to settle for anything less than the absolute that made him such easy prey for Darth Sidious. Several people have commented that Anakin’s conversion to Darth Vader was too quick to be believable, but I disagree. It was very believable, which is precisely what makes it so very frightening.

The opening sequence was astonishing, from the vast batallion of ships to the Chancellor’s rescue. Right from the start, the movie establishes that Anakin’s relationship with Obi-Wan has changed significantly. Obi-Wan now treats his apprentice with more respect, and Anakin seems to have matured quite a bit, which is a nice change from his whiny petulance in Attack of the Clones. But their relationship is strained when Padme, Anakin’s secret wife (the Jedi are forbidden to marry) reveals to him that she is pregnant.

Anakin begins to have nightmares about Padme dying in childbirth, and he begins to be obsessed with preventing her death. He visits Yoda seeking advice, of course without revealing any information that would get him into trouble with the Jedi Council. Yoda tells him to learn to let go of anything he’s afraid to lose. Sage advice on any account.

Long story short, Palpatine, who is of course secretly Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith, convinces Anakin that only he can teach Anakin how to save Padme. And Anakin, consumed with the thought of protecting his wife, gives in. Sidious names him Darth Vader, and a new villian is born.

Vader travels to the volcanic planet of Mustafar to kill Nute Gunray, Viceroy of the Trade Federation. In doing so, he made me very happy. Gunray was absolutely the dumbest character in the prequel trilogy, from his lousy costume to his ridiculous pseudo-Asian accent. Obi-Wan tracks Vader to Mustafar and what follows is one of the coolest lightsaber duels in the Star Wars franchise. It ends with Vader in defeat, and Obi-Wan walking away, leaving him for dead, mangled, crippled, and burning.

But we know it doesn’t end there, because we’ve already seen Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, right? Palpatine/Sidious finds what’s left of Vader’s body and has him turned into the twisted cyborg we see in the classic trilogy. As Vader assumes his new costume (or old costume, depending on how you look at it), we hear the faints strains of Imperial March. And then, in a very nice touch, we hear the voice of James Earl Jones coming from behind the helmet.

All in all, it was a good time and a good movie. Do I think Lucas has redeemed himself? Not a question for me to answer, as I didn’t feel personally offended by the first two episodes of the prequel trilogy. I never felt that Lucas had betrayed me or my childhood memories, nor was I offended by Ewoks in 1983. And I thought Boba Fett was the coolest guy ever when I was a kid.

No, in the end, I just think it’s a good series of movies, and that this one was the best of them. Personally, I hold out hope for episodes VII, VIII, and IX. I’d love to see more.

From Star Wars Spirituality, featured on christianitytoday.com:

Partly because the Star Wars saga is melodrama, and partly because human instinct tends to prematurely separate the sheep from the goats, the potential for the redemption of Darth Vader never crossed the well-set minds of most viewers. For some, the redemptive ending was not entirely plausible. The Time magazine reviewer, for example, thought it corny. But the very surprise it occasions effectively uncovers the bad manners of contemporary cynicism and hopelessness. That is admittedly a preachy point to make, but the effect of the ending of The Return of the Jedi, the unlikely return itself, pivots on the audience’s usual gullibility about the way the world usually works, which is badly. Sinners, whores, and late grape-pickers all the same, contemporary imaginative habits are constrained to see judgment and doom, to turn away from the possibility of renewal.

Very interesting reading.

I ran this through my irony meter, and it exploded.

Here’s a snippet. See if you can guess the author.
But not the iPod. Most agree it is the best quality player on the market even if the cheapest one costs a few hundred dollars. The problem is that the iPod only works with either songs that you buy from the on-line Apple iTunes store or songs that you rip from your own CD’s. But those other music sites have lots of music that you can’t get at the iTunes store. So, if you have an iPod, you are out of luck. If you are really a geek, you can figure out how to strip the songs you might have bought from another on-line store of all identifying information so that they will go into the iPod. But then you have also degraded the sound quality. How cruel.

Oh, it boggles the mind.

I can’t even bring myself to comment. The whole thing is just too stupid.

From Howstuffworks.com: Chances are that you have seen a lightsaber at one time or another, whether on the evening news or down at the local cantina. Therefore you know that a lightsaber is an amazing and versatile device that is able to cut through nearly anything in a matter of milliseconds.

Cool. I can’t remember ever being as excited about a new Star Wars movies as I am about Episode III. Gracie and I just finished Episode I and tomorrow we’re doing Episode II. I’ve seen them already, but it’s always good for another viewing, and it’s fun to watch Gracie discover the Star Wars universe. It’s also fun to hear her talk about Dark Vader, Dark Maul, and Dark Sidious.

When Darth Maul first appeared, she said, “Daddy, is he good or bad?”

“He’s bad,” I said.

“I can tell,” she replied. “I can tell by how he looks.”

Which is good, becuase if she ever encounters a dude with six little horns and a painted face in real life, I hope she runs.